Utah restaurant accused of kicking out veterans, children with service dogs

A Utah restaurant is under fire after it turned away customers with service dogs on multiple occasions, Today reported.

A group of veterans planned to eat at the Bombay Grill in Ogden, Utah — about an hour north of Salt Lake City — on June 6 but were allegedly “kicked out” because the manager said their service dogs couldn’t come inside with them.

{mosads}One of the men, James Mann — who founded a nonprofit that helps veterans with disabilities — entered the restaurant and tried to explain to the manager that people with service dogs are legally protected from facing discrimination. But his explanation didn’t work, Today reported.

Mann posted a video of the exchange on YouTube and wrote that the restaurant owner was “adamant about not allowing us specifically because of our service dogs.”

In the video, the four veterans are seen sitting down in the restaurant as the manager tells them why they can’t stay. The camera later shows the service dogs wearing vests and laying underneath the tables and chairs.

“We tried to explain the law protecting the rights of individuals with service dogs and he stated that if anyone tried to say that he had to serve us by law then he would just close his business,” Mann wrote.

{mosads}The manager first says he can choose to refuse his service to whomever he wants to and that he doesn’t care about the law. Later in the video, the manager said the group can eat on the sidewalk outside and that the restaurant wasn’t open. The group ultimately chose to leave.

“I’ve never been asked to leave anywhere because of my dog,” Mann told Today. “It was really embarrassing to be discriminated against this way.”

The restaurant’s manager told Today that “I care for other people” who eat there, but that he doesn’t want “the dogs to attack.” He also said one of his employees is afraid of dogs, so he doesn’t want them inside.

Bombay Grill has also received complaints from a couple, who took their 5-year-old son and his service dog to the restaurant last month, Today reports. When they got there, they were reportedly turned away immediately, and despite their attempts to explain the law to a worker, he said it was “my opinion, it’s my restaurant. And I say no dogs.”